The poem laments the death of common villagers who lacked opportunities in life due to poverty and living in isolation in villages. It focuses on how their deaths should still be respected despite their simple graves, and not mocked by wealthy ambitious people. The poem uses nature imagery and figures of speech to depict the countryside evening scene and ponder on death being common to all.
The poem laments the death of common villagers who lacked opportunities in life due to poverty and living in isolation in villages. It focuses on how their deaths should still be respected despite their simple graves, and not mocked by wealthy ambitious people. The poem uses nature imagery and figures of speech to depict the countryside evening scene and ponder on death being common to all.
The poem laments the death of common villagers who lacked opportunities in life due to poverty and living in isolation in villages. It focuses on how their deaths should still be respected despite their simple graves, and not mocked by wealthy ambitious people. The poem uses nature imagery and figures of speech to depict the countryside evening scene and ponder on death being common to all.
The poem laments the death of common villagers who lacked opportunities in life due to poverty and living in isolation in villages. It focuses on how their deaths should still be respected despite their simple graves, and not mocked by wealthy ambitious people. The poem uses nature imagery and figures of speech to depict the countryside evening scene and ponder on death being common to all.
Critical Appreciation of ‘an Elegy written in a country churchyard’
Introduction- Thomas Gray's elegy is among best written elegy poems.
It was published in 1751. Elegy is a poem which laments death of a person. But here poet chose common folks like villagers and laments their death. It was due to this poem that Gray is listed among graveyard poets. Gray was precursor of romanticism. Hence this poem reflects elements of both classicism and romanticism.
Central Idea- Poet has focused on the death of villagers who couldn't able to achieve much in life due to lack of opportunities to them. They died in isolation living in villages throughout their Life. Poverty was major reason for lack of opportunities. Hence poet wants that these people should also be respected despite their simple rustic graves. They should not be mocked for their simplicity by rich and ambitious people.
Themes 1. Death is inevitable 2. Class division in society
Figure of Speech 1. Transferred Epithet - 'weary way' and 'drowsy tinkling' has transferred Epithet. 2. Personification- 'moping owl does to the moon complain' has personified both owl and the Moon. Later on Death is personified in the poem at several points. 3. Metaphor- 'Narrow cell' for graves. 4. Synecdoche- 'let not Ambition mock' and 'Nor Grandeur hear' have used synecdoche as Ambition is an abstract for concrete ambitious persons and grandeur for rich people. 5. Oxymoron- The line 'This pleasing anxious being ever resigned' has oxymoron as two opposite words 'pleasing anxious' are used together.
Elements of Nature- The first three stanzas have beautiful description
of nature. The scene of evening and activities happening during that time of the day is described aptly. Wind blowing slowly, glimmering landscape, droning beetles, lowing cattle, moping owl etc showed how widely poet has covered nature and activities happen during evening in countryside.
Common man's poem- Poem ponders over death which is a very
common subject to everybody. Along with it, it talks about the common rustic folks of villages whose lives went unnoticed.
Structure of the poem- Poem has stanzas in the form of quatrains i.e. stanza of 4 lines. It has rhyme scheme of ABAB. So we can say that it has Heroic quatrain.
